ESPN’s ‘Hey Rookie’ Takes Us To The NFL Combine With Saquon Barkley
The second installment of ESPN’s “Hey Rookie Welcome to the NFL” aka the “Saquon Barkley Show featuring Bradley Chubb” takes us to the NFL combine with our favorite running back prospect.
In the first scene, someone asks Saquon what the most difficult question he’s been asked by scouts leading up to the draft is. Barkley said in the middle of a full-on football conversation, a scout asked him for the square root of nine. Barkley, caught off guard, had to think for a second before giving the correct answer: “three.”
However, the mental game is only half the battle at the NFL combine. Leading up to the event, Saquon claimed his goal was 30 reps on the bench. Thus, he was disappointed when he came up one short with 29. The combine average for running backs was 17, so when Saquon expressed his disappointment to the other backs, they looked at him like he was crazy. Behind the scenes, NFL legends Fred Taylor and Brian Westbrook also stopped by to speak words of wisdom to the highly touted prospect.
After Saquon dropped every scout’s jaw with his combine testing in the vertical jump and 40 yard dash, he took the field for his position drills. Unsurprisingly, he did not disappoint. “Did somebody other than Saquon Barkley compete today?” asked one of the NFL Network Analysts after day one of the combine. The whole league stopped to admire Barkley’s performance in Indianapolis.
When he received his official 40-time, Barkley was upset to hear 4.40 seconds. He joked with another running back that they could have given him some love and rounded it down to 4.39 seconds. While Saquon himself was not totally satisfied with his performance at the combine, he also admitted he can’t complain with being in the top two or three for running backs at every combine event.
As a fan, it was remarkable to see Barkley achieve super-human feats and be upset about them. The most glaring takeaway from the combine, aside from the fact that Barkley is a freak of nature, is his hunger to be the best at everything he does. NFL Scouts don’t need to look very hard to see that the Coplay, PA native has a tremendous work ethic.
After tearing up the combine, Saquon kicked it with James Franklin at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville prior to an award ceremony. Saquon shared that his dad was a boxer and the trip to the center was inspirational for him.
Learned so many valuable lesson from my visit at the @AliCenter Tune in at 9:30 on ESPN! @NFLFilms pic.twitter.com/2TfywNm7se
— Saquon Barkley (@saquon) April 17, 2018
Muhammad Ali used his platform as a world-famous boxer to speak out as a civil rights activist. Similarly, Barkley feels obligated to use his voice as a public figure to make an impact beyond just being an athlete.
At the conclusion of their trip, Franklin applauded Barkley’s ability to learn from his mistakes and the two shared a laugh when Franklin teased him, saying “I know your ass ain’t perfect.”
The show concluded with the award ceremony, at which Saquon Barkley was honored with the Paul Hornung Award for being the most versatile college football player. Naturally, he was applauded by even more Hall of Fame running backs at the ceremony.
“I have 125 sons and two daughters,”a teary-eyed James Franklin said giving a speech at the ceremony. “The thing that I would like to thank Saquon Barkley the most for is for being an incredible big brother and role model to my two daughters.”
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